TT La Conner……. in the rain

We packed up our motorhomes, in the rain, and departed TT Mt Vernon at 9 am for the short drive south on I-5 to La Conner. I had previously downloaded a Thousand Trails location file for my Garmin Nuvi 760 from POI Factory, and brought up the La Conner location before leaving. The GPS directions were somewhat different from what our Thousand Trails magazine told us, so we decided to follow the magazine directions just to be safe. The last thing we needed was to follow the GPS directions and run into a low bridge or overpass. Turned out the actual GPS coordinates I had were not spot on and actually a little further down Snee Oosh Road.

Anyway, we arrived alright and checked in without incident, in the rain. Lots of sites were available but trying to find one that gave me satellite reception was time consuming. We went into the McKenzie Area on the full hook up side of the park first, but the trees made it impossible to get a satellite signal. My Verizon USB modem failed to get a signal as well, even with an amplifier and external antenna. I tried 3-4 sites there but to no avail, so I decided to hook up to sewer and water in an empty site, just so I could dump and do laundry, while I checked out the rest of the park for a better site.

The preserve map depicts suggested tripod satellite and roof top satellite sites. Tripod satellite sites have a red circle, roof top satellite sites have a red circle with a red dot. Unfortunately, the majority of satellite friendly sites seemed to be in the non sewer site areas. I found what I thought to be 3-4 possible roof top satellite sites to the left of the ranger station in the Shark, Trout, and Salmon Lane area near the boat launch, but none gave me a useable signal. Even the ranger was unable to suggest a good site. I questioned the accuracy of the preserve map in so far as showing satellite sites, but she didn’t know how old or reliable the maps were.

It rained on and off most of the day and I finally set up in site 208 which is near the beach cabins that overlook Skagit Bay. I met David Wellington and his wife who were in an Alpha in site 198. He too had a Datastorm roof top dish and had moved several times in the previous days, trying to get a signal. They finally got one in site 198, but while we were huddled under his awning, in the rain, he told me he had lost his signal, likely because of the rain and heavy cloud cover.

So things are pretty wet here. Don’t think we will be playing much pickleball while we are here, but I am sure we’ll find something to do to keep busy. The park does have wifi in the family center and apparently a great hot tub that overlooks the water as well. I’ll check all that out during my morning run tomorrow.

Chris called this evening. Her dad goes into hospital on Sunday for his surgery and we are both understandably concerned about that. More later.